Avondale Estates renewed the contract of City Manager Clai Brown who makes $162,496.
During a work session last week Commissioner Randy Bebee called Brown “the heart and soul of the city.” Mayor Pro Tem Terry Giager added, “If we didn’t renew Clai’s contract we’d be run out of town on a rail.”
Brown grew up in the city, graduating from the old Avondale High in 1982. At age 15 he was hired as a lot man and car loader for a new company called The Home Depot, helped open the first store and retired 22 years later as a district manager.
He became city manager in 2008, following a stretch of six city managers in the previous nine years.
His father, Dewey Brown, who died in Nov. 2007, was city manager and chief of police for 46 years.